NCCPC’s Advisory Council

Sandra Williams-Hamp

Executive Director, GUEA

Sandra Williams Hamp is an incredible leader with over 25 years of experience in education. A native of Berkeley, California, she has spent her career strategically advocating and expanding access and equity in California and across the nation.

Currently, Sandra is the Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement at the University of California Office of the President. She oversees UC’s systemwide outreach efforts and strategic partnerships that support the university’s mission of inclusiveness excellence. She works passionately to ensure that more students and have access to the University of California and thrive. She leads UCs SAPEP portfolio which serve more than 200,000 students and California and key strategic partnerships that support equity, inclusion, and diversity with various stakeholders, including Starbucks, College Advising Corps, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Major League Baseball (MLB), Black Girls Code and many others.

Before joining the University of California Office of the President, Sandra’s 18 year tenure at the College Board included serving as the Executive Director of K-12, for the College Board Western Regional Office where she was responsible for K-12 strategy and leadership in the 12 western states. She developed extensive partnerships with K-12 school districts, state departments of educations, business leaders, foundations and community-based organizations to close the achievement gap and improve student performance.

April Grommo

Dr. April Grommo currently serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Services at the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor. She is responsible for systemwide admissions, enrollment management, financial aid, outreach and recruitment, transfer programs, and registration and records policy and practices.

Before joining the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Grommo served in leadership positions in information technology and student services in higher education– including Sierra-Cedar – Higher Education Practice, California State University San Marcos, National University, and Palomar Community College.

Dr. Grommo was first in her family to graduate from college and received her Educational Leadership Doctorate from UCSD in 2014, where she focused on social networks of underrepresented community college transfer students.

Delegate: David O’Brien

Vice Chancellor of Governmental Relations

David O’Brien has served as Vice Chancellor for Government Relations for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office since April 2020. In this role, he oversees a division responsible for formulating and advancing the legislative agenda of the California Community Colleges and represents the Chancellor’s Office before the Legislature and executive branch of the state and federal governments.

Prior to joining the Chancellor’s Office in April 2020, O’Brien served as director of government affairs for the California Student Aid Commission since October 2016, a role that placed him as the commission’s primary liaison to the state Legislature, the Governor’s Office, the California Department of Finance and other agencies on matters related to financial aid and college affordability. That made him a critical figure in the commission’s efforts to reform and expand California’s financial aid programs.

Prior to joining the Student Aid Commission, O’Brien worked for nearly five years as a legislative manager for the California Department of State Hospitals, a legislative analyst for the state Department of Mental Health and as a legislative assistant for the California Environmental Protection Agency. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from California State University, Sacramento, and lives in West Sacramento with his wife, a public school teacher.

Delegate: Nicola Pitchford, PhD

President, Dominican University

Nicola Pitchford has served as president of Dominican University of California since 2021. She champions Dominican’s work as an inclusive Minority-Serving Institution that generates economic mobility and equity in Marin County and the Bay Area. A professor of English and advocate of the liberal arts, she has research expertise on higher education issues, contemporary British literature, feminist theory, and race and national identity. She is also an award-winning nonfiction nature writer. In prior roles as dean and vice president at Dominican, Dr. Pitchford led the design team that conceived and developed Dominican’s nationally recognized signature student learning model, with holistic student support and community-engaged learning experiences at its core. She serves on the board of LEAD California, a statewide nonprofit for civic and community engagement in higher education.

Previous to Dominican, she was an administrator and member of the faculty at Fordham University in New York. Dr. Pitchford earned her master’s and PhD from the University of Wisconsin, in English, and her bachelor’s degree from Pomona College. An immigrant to the US, she lives in San Rafael.

Dr. Rowena Tomaneng

Deputy Chancellor, CCCCO, Delegate

Currently, Tomaneng serves as the president of San Jose City College, a position she has held since 2020. Tomaneng began her higher education journey as a student at a community college.

Tomaneng has nearly 30 years of experience in higher education. And her expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion, and high impact practices that lead to student equity, student success and civic engagement, will play a key role in her new responsibilities.

During her time at San Jose City College, Tomaneng worked to develop innovative partnerships that provided academic and career education pathways for the college’s diverse student populations. She also secured several Hispanic-Serving Institution federal grants to increase Latinx student success. Prior to serving as the president of San Jose City College, Tomaneng was the president of Berkeley City College where she helped implement academic pathways designed to increase access to higher education for low-income, first-generation to college African American/Black, Latinx and Southeast Asian students. Tomaneng has also served in multiple administrative roles at De Anza College, including associate vice president of instruction and dean of Language Arts. She also served as a faculty director and for 12 years as a faculty member.

In 2019, Tomaneng was honored as California Assembly District 15 Woman of the Year by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks in recognition for her service to the Berkeley-Oakland community. She serves on numerous statewide and national boards including American Association of Community Colleges and Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education. She has written and contributed to a variety of publications and is frequently invited to speak statewide and nationally.

Tomaneng earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Irvine followed by a master’s degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a doctoral degree in International and Multicultural Education, Human Rights Concentration from the University of San Francisco.

Michael Tubbs

Founder and Board Chair, Reinvent Stockton Foundation

Member since April 9, 2021

At the age of 26, Michael D. Tubbs became the youngest Mayor of any major city in American history. As Mayor, Tubbs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. Under his stewardship, Stockton was named an “All-America City” in 2017 and 2018, saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer involved shootings in 2019, was named the second most fiscally healthy city in California and one of the top most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and was featured in an HBO documentary film, Stockton on My Mind.

Dr. April Grommo

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Services, California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor

Member since September 9, 2022

Dr. April Grommo currently serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Services at the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor. She is responsible for systemwide admissions, enrollment management, financial aid, outreach and recruitment, transfer programs, and registration and records policy and practices.

Before joining the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Grommo served in leadership positions in information technology and student services in higher education– including Sierra-Cedar – Higher Education Practice, California State University San Marcos, National University, and Palomar Community College.

Dr. Grommo was the first in her family to graduate from college and received her Educational Leadership Doctorate from UCSD in 2014, where she focused on social networks of underrepresented community college transfer students.

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Dr. Martha Kanter

CEO, College Promise

Member since November 12, 2022

Dr. Martha Kanter leads College Promise, a national, non-partisan, non-profit initiative to increase college access, affordability, quality, and completion in American higher education.

She is also a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy. She specializes in policy efforts to identify and apply innovative, evidence-based education interventions, financing models, and behavioral incentives to raise America’s high school and college graduation rates.

From 2009-2013, Dr. Kanter served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Education, overseeing all federal postsecondary statutory, regulatory, and administrative policies and programs, including the $175B annual federal student aid programs, higher education, adult education, career-technical education, international education, and 6 White House Initiatives. From 1993-2009, she was president of De Anza College and then chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Silicon Valley, California. She began her career as an alternative high school teacher in Lexington, MA.

Dr. Kanter holds a B.A. degree in Sociology from Brandeis University, an M.Ed. from Harvard University, and an Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco.

Libby Schaaf

Former Mayor of Oakland (Nov 2022)

Former Mayor Libby Schaaf was born and raised in Oakland, which she proudly describes as, “The most unapologetic Sanctuary City in America.” During her tenure, Oakland underwent an economic revitalization and building boom, as well as cut gun violence in half.

Her “17K/17K Housing Plan” helped increase Oakland’s affordable housing production, stabilize rents, and decrease evictions. Her innovative public-private partnerships Keep Oakland Housed and Cabin Communities are credited with preventing 1,800 families a year from losing their housing while resolving some of Oakland’s most unsafe street encampments. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Mayor Schaaf to California’s first Council of Regional Homeless Advisors.

She created Oakland’s first Department of Transportation, whose equity-based paving plan is the first of its kind in the nation and will make previously underserved neighborhoods safer while addressing the city’s decades-old infrastructure backlog.

Mayor Schaaf is most proud of launching the Oakland Promise, a bold cradle-to-career initiative to send more low-income Oakland kids to college. The Oakland Promise gives every baby born into poverty a $500 savings account at birth. The Oakland Promise has sent more than 1,400 Oakland students (and counting) to college with scholarships and mentors.

Alex Graves

Vice President for Government Relations, AICCU

Alex Graves joined AICCU in January 2019. As vice president for government relations, he is the chief lobbyist and is responsible for legislative advocacy and public policy leadership in support of independent higher education. Graves serves as the liaison between AICCU and the Governor’s Office, the California Legislature, California Student Aid Commission, and other public bodies.

Prior to joining AICCU, he worked as the legislative advocate at the California State University Office of Advocacy & State Relations, where he staffed legislation pertaining to admissions, financial aid, K-12 and teacher preparation, student basic needs, and transfer. He has also worked as a legislative assistant at the Alzheimer’s Association, and as a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy. In 2016-17 he completed the California Education Policy Fellowship Program, a year-long program designed to help equip education leaders to address the state’s unique education policy needs.

Graves received his Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Occidental College and his Master’s of Public Policy & Administration from Sacramento State University. For the past ten years, he has volunteered with Occidental as part of their Volunteers in Service of Tiger Admission (ViSTA) program. He has also volunteered locally with the YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Junior Giants Baseball Program.

Niccolo De Luna

Vice President & Chief Advocacy Officer, Townsend Public Affairs

Since joining the firm in 2008, Niccolo has secured passage of multiple client-sponsored bills, secured tens of millions of dollars in state and federal competitive grants, as well as successfully advocated for millions of dollars in state funding through the state budget for our clients’ priority projects.

Areas of policy expertise:

Local Governance
Cannabis
Parks and Recreation
Public Safety
Housing and Homelessness
Natural Resources
Cultural Resources
Consumer Affairs
Nonprofit Organizations

Previous experience:

Deputy City Administrator, City of Oakland (Mayor Jerry Brown)
Deputy Director, Public Works Agency, City of Oakland
Deputy Director, Councilmember Richard Spees, City of Oakland

Meet the Advisory Council

You are invited to join a community of Northern California colleges, as well as organizations and leaders dedicated to college access, support, and success.

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